As Louisiana's new secretary of state, Tom Schedler already is in full stride, continuing the work of streamlining Louisiana election procedures that he began when he joined the Secretary of State's Office three years ago.

He first steps into state politics, though, were more of a stumble.

After four years on the Slidell City Council, Schedler announced as a candidate for a vacant seat in the state House of Representatives in 1995. Then his home took on water in the massive May flood that year. Distracted by the impact of the flooding of his home and those of his neighbors and other constituents, Schedler saw his campaign derailed before it ever took off.

Later in the year, state Sen. Gerry Hinton of Slidell chose not to seek re-election after his name surfaced in a corruption scandal. Schedler was among the first of what turned out to be 10 candidates to enter that race.

The day after qualifying ended, Schedler and his wife Stephanie launched his campaign by spending a long Saturday distributing hastily photocopied fliers in the Hammond area, on the unfamiliar western fringe of the sprawling Senate district.

On the drive home to Slidell that evening, Stephanie Schedler looked up from their map and informed her husband that they had just spent the entire day going door-to-door on the wrong side of the district boundary. For all the encouragement they had gotten, none of the people they had encountered would be able to vote for him.

Despite that bumpy start, Schedler soldiered on, edging a fellow councilman by four votes for second place and a runoff berth. A month later, he outpolled the frontrunner to win the 11th Senate District seat.

Slidell City Councilman Sam Caruso was mayor during Schedler's tenure as a councilman and his first two terms as state senator. He remembers Schedler as "noticeably more effective than most people" in elective office and "willing and able to swim against the tide," as evidenced by his successful push for term limits for Slidell officials.

A real estate broker by profession, Schedler developed as senator an expertise on health care issues, and he was widely speculated to be a candidate for Health and Hospitals secretary once Gov. Bobby Jindal took office. Instead, he became the top assistant to his former Senate colleague Jay Dardenne, who by then had been elected secretary of state.

"We were philosophically aligned on virtually every issue, and we became good friends," Dardenne said this week of their time together in the state Senate.

"He became someone that I trusted and always did what he believed to be right, not what was politically expedient. I like to think that was how I conducted myself, and I saw that in him and knew that he would be a good fit in our management team at the Secretary of State's Office."

When Dardenne won a special election last fall to become Louisiana's lieutenant governor, state law dictated that Schedler, as first assistant secretary of state, would step up to replace him.

As first assistant, Schedler "was on the road quite a bit, dealing with clerks of court and registrars of voters" -- the officials most involved in conducting local elections, Dardenne said. "That gave him the opportunity to meet with folks that he's now dealing with directly.

"He's very comfortable with the details, the mechanical details of the office, as it relates to elections, because he was involved in all that he's now having to direct."

The Secretary of State's Office oversees a range of state activities, from elections to corporation filings to managing museums. While Schedler sets about running the agency, he also will be looking ahead to his first statewide campaign in the fall, as he seeks to retain the office for the next four years.

As an appointed incumbent, he likely will attract a sizable field of opponents. Among those mentioned in political circles as possible candidates so far are Caroline Fayard, who lost a runoff to Dardenne for lieutenant governor; former U.S. Rep. Joseph Cao; Scott Angelle, secretary of the Department of Natural Resources; state Sen. Mike Michot, R-Lafayette, and state Rep. Walker Hines, R-New Orleans.

When he took the oath in December, Schedler became the fourth current statewide official from St. Tammany Parish, joining Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Mike Strain and Treasurer John Kennedy, who were elected to office, and Lane Carson, who was appointed by Jindal as secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

For his part, Schedler harkened back to his first public leadership role, as Fountain Estates Homeowners Association president in the 1980s, and said he remains enthused about the challenges he faces, now as a statewide official.

"I feel comfortable here," he said. "It's been a good transition. I hope I can do some good."

Ron Thibodeaux is the St. Tammany bureau chief. He can be reached at rthibodeaux@timespicayune.com or 985.898.4834.